Band Geekism
by notkamers
Summary: Being a band geek so much more than people think. It's much more than the stereotype allows.
1. Part One

Author's Note: I wrote this as an English assignment... It was shorter, but later on I started writing more and more and... well, you get the idea. :) Anyway, this is pretty much what our band is all about.  
~~~  
  
Band Geekism  
  
It's taking pride in being labeled as a "band geek"  
  
It's the feeling after performing flawlessly  
  
It's striving to be Drum Major (because of the pants)  
  
It's racing to get the window seat  
  
It's learning to work as a team  
  
It's the endless inside jokes  
  
It's finding out that people are more than they seem  
  
It's braving the mosquitoes and sunburn  
  
It's hitting the gong even though you're not supposed to  
  
It's realizing that some things just can't be changed, no matter how much you want them to  
  
It's inspiration to try your hardest  
  
It's winning and losing and moving on  
  
It's hugging your best friends and ignoring the strange looks  
  
It's doing it anyways  
  
It's making friends with people you never noticed or bothered to get to know  
  
It's standing ovations  
  
It's memorizing, forgetting, and pretending  
  
It's being stupid and not caring what others think  
  
It's catching someone's eye just before you play  
  
It's doing things you never dreamed of doing  
  
It's cramming for tests and homework on buses  
  
It's carpooling and hitch-hiking  
  
It's physically hurting yourself, but laughing about it later  
  
It's football games and parades  
  
It's sore muscles and bruises  
  
It's a thousand tears, but even more laughs  
  
It's the feeling after you've mastered a tough piece  
  
It's knowing that you're cared about by people other than your family  
  
It's not having to worry about fitting in  
  
It's laughing until your sides hurt  
  
It's realizing that the frosh really aren't all that bad  
  
It's playing musical flip folder  
  
It's joy, happiness, sorrow, and sadness rolled into one  
  
It's daring people to go into the tuba case  
  
It's broken hearts  
  
It's living life to its fullest  
  
It's making up new words  
  
It's blisters and band aids  
  
It's caffiene and sugar rushes  
  
It's threatening to push others off the bleachers  
  
It's actually pushing others off the bleachers  
  
It's five minute water breaks  
  
It's sleeping on a bus  
  
It's humidity, heat waves, and thunderstorms  
  
It's playing other people's instruments  
  
It's learning a new instrument  
  
It's experiencing new things  
  
It's learning to accept the unchangeable  
  
It's hurting your friend's feelings and getting your feelings hurt right back  
  
It's forgiving and forgetting  
  
It's only forgetting  
  
It's misunderstandings and miscommunications  
  
It's trying your hardest  
  
It's rolls of film and home videos  
  
It's reeds, mouthpieces, head joints, and valve oil  
  
It's throwing things into the euphonium bell  
  
It's staying up late joking around  
  
It's living in the band room  
  
It's thinking about how lucky you are when playing a simple Bb concert scale  
  
It's cherishing moments like these  
  
It's the clear and starry nights  
  
It's debates over whether "LOTR" or "Harry Potter" is better  
  
It's hiding people's cases  
  
It's breaking your instrument and crying  
  
It's typing up the phone in the band room  
  
It's making crank calls on the band phone line  
  
It's falling in and out of love  
  
It's drawing on the chalkboard  
  
It's a neverending soal opera  
  
It's "borrowing" money  
  
It's freshman orientation  
  
It's figuring out which animal an animal cracker is  
  
It's discovering something new  
  
It's pounding on the piano  
  
It's lying so you don't hurt others  
  
It's not practicing for Solo Ensemble  
  
It's complaining about Polka Band  
  
It's going for nature walks when you're supposed to be in class  
  
It's being late for Wind Ensemble, but not getting in trouble because no one noticed  
  
It's not starting class until fifteen minutes after the bell  
  
It's knowing that all the percussionist jokes are true  
  
It's getting offended when someone puts down a flute  
  
It's having other people carry your tuba or bass drum  
  
It's cheering for the opposing team  
  
It's going to sporting events, losing, and still having the time of your life  
  
It's learning committment  
  
It's having fun when you're mosquito bitten, muscle sore, sun burned, and sweating  
  
It's excitment for band camp  
  
It's being the living example of a band geek  
  
It's birthday paries in the band room  
  
It's getting a *1 on a class A solo  
  
It's using fingering charts as homework  
  
It's 30 teenagers in one room for 50 minutes at a time and coming out alive  
  
It's knowing that last chair is just as important as first  
  
It's promises and lies  
  
It's living up to your own expectations  
  
It's sleeping, trying to sleep, and down-right not sleeping on the bus  
  
It's burning CDs  
  
It's Dungeons and Dragons and other role playing  
  
It's trying not to laugh during rests  
  
It's wanting to rent the marimba for the summer  
  
It's helping your director take inventory, no matter how much you'd rather sleep  
  
It's hitting other people with guard flags and rifles  
  
It's running like a doofus on the field (purposely)  
  
It's squirting water on your friends  
  
It's making up your own cheers for football games  
  
It's writing words for "Suite in Eb" and "In All Its Glory"  
  
It's sleeping on the couch with your friends after school in the band room  
  
It's being able to use your friend's butt as a pillow and not have any questions raised  
  
It's freezing at football games  
  
It's running through mud with the uniforms  
  
It's trying to throw a bass drum over the fence  
  
It's using your instrument in your Senior photos  
  
It's bleacher butt  
  
It's battles of the wits  
  
It's having section wars  
  
It's actually using dynamics  
  
It's walking in step with your friends as you walk down the hall  
  
It's going to "The Pig" during lunch  
  
It's knowing everyone's name  
  
It's having freshman say hi to you and beaming when you say hi back  
  
It's laughing at old yearbook pictures  
  
It's trusting people you shouldn't trust  
  
It's hair dye  
  
It's sunglasses and farmer's tans  
  
It's medals, letters, and "arrows"  
  
It's jingleing when you walk while wearing your letter jacket because of all the medalsIt's learning  
  
It's not being a preppy freshman  
  
It's learning to be yourself  
  
It's playing when you are sick  
  
It's calling your friends at school when you are sick to have them bring your instrument home  
  
It's adopting your friends as children  
  
It's snotting/sneezing/goobering/blowing up out of your nose on a strange Drum Major guy  
  
It's having alter-egos  
  
It's saying, "Respect my authori-tay!"  
  
It's those long, comfortable silences  
  
It's being best friends with a guy  
  
It's getting first chair (or second chair, or third chair, or fourth chair, ect)  
  
It's playing scales as 32nds  
  
It's trying to be mean, but failing  
  
It's going to every Honor Band possible  
  
It's laughing more than talking  
  
It's having your friends read your mind  
  
It's making up a percussion salute  
  
It's all this and SO much more... 


	2. Part Two

Author's Note: By "popular" demand, I decided to continue this poem/list/whatever you want to call it. I got some AWESOME reviews from people and I just want to thank each of you for reviewing. If you read this, please, feel free to put some that apply to your band into a review. I will gladly add them. I'm hoping to be able to continue this for a while. :) By the way, I'm slightly obsessed with the Cavaliers...it's reflected in here. Anyway, enough of me yapping...  
~~~  
  
Band Geekism - Part Two  
  
It's going to band camp and proudly stating that yes, you do, in fact, play the flute  
  
It's making fun of the color guard, but secretly wishing that you could spin a rifle, flag, or sabre with that much precision  
  
It's being a Drum and Bugle Corps groupie (Go Cavaliers! Yay!)  
  
It's having your first fling be a band member  
  
It's getting Spam, Ritz crackers, cheese-in-a-can, and Sour Skittles for your birthday  
  
It's band aids and knee braces  
  
It's earning the respect during marching season from your non-band friends  
  
It's crying at the Senior's last concert  
  
It's thinking back on the crappy days, and being able to think, "See, that wasn't so bad"  
  
It's being able to count more happy days than crappy days  
  
It's the ability to admit when you are wrong  
  
It's apologizing  
  
It's getting to know your section leader or Drum Major for who they are, not their title  
  
It's not giving in to the Drum Major ego*  
  
It's walking away from a football game with a sense of accomplishment, even if your team lost  
  
It's never having to pay to get into highschool sporting events  
  
It's spending obscene amounts of money on gifts  
  
It's keeping a journal  
  
It's stacks of photographs and home videos  
  
It's realizing just how lucky you are  
  
It's forcing a smile, even when you want to cry  
  
It's buying as many band shirts as possible  
  
It's qualifying your social life as marching band  
  
It's being mauled over by a percussionist, and living to tell the tale  
  
It's feeling the tears come to your eyes the last time you put on your uniform before you graduate  
  
It's having an argument over who would win in a fight: the quads player or the fourth bass drum player  
  
It's Subway  
  
It's naming your instrument  
  
It's going to parades to scope out the competition  
  
It's enjoying jazz running  
  
It's "oohing" and "ahhing" when you watch a DCI Championship on video  
  
It's loving the plume  
  
It's going to a DCI Championship on the other side of the country because everywhere else was sold out  
  
It's calling your director "Mom" or "Dad"  
  
It's band gossip  
  
It's learning to love everyone - even those you hate  
  
It's having races over who can put their uniform on quicker - without hurting the uniform  
  
It's vaulting over fences (with a bass drum and uniform)  
  
It's knowing everyone else's music  
  
It's becoming friends with the Drum Major  
  
It's becoming a Drum Major because you became friends with one of the other Drum Majors  
  
It's humming the music from your show  
  
It's being able to direct the National Anthem flawlessly  
  
It's having sentimental band souveniers scattered around your room that you would never throw away  
  
It's being in a musical pit  
  
It's enjoying parades  
  
It's willingly learning a new style of marching  
  
It's not gloating when you get first chair  
  
It's using your band locker instead of your normal locker  
  
It's wanting to take a bus and drive it around aimlessly  
  
It's loving to meet new freshmen  
  
It's the adrenaline rush you get before you step onto the field  
  
It's that strange thing called school spirit  
  
It's getting up at ungodly hours of the morning, like 11:00  
  
It's having all your English essays/poems/stories being band related  
  
It's wanting a Doctor Beat  
  
It's listening to the music during a movie, rather than paying attention to the plot  
  
It's having a party to watch old DCI videos  
  
It's loving your car because it's a Cavalier  
  
It's Monty Python  
  
It's realizing that everyone in band has more in common than just being in band  
  
It's not caring who the preps, pot heads, posers, punks, and geeks are  
  
It's freaking out when you see a marching band or pep band on movies or TV shows  
  
It's counting down the days to band camp  
  
It's going to multiple band camps over the summer  
  
It's the thrill of winning (or not winning, even) a competition  
  
It's keeping the drill charts from years prior for memory's sake  
  
It's reading band comics  
  
It's planning on being a graduated band geek  
  
It's taking offense when you're a girl and you can't join the Cavaliers  
  
It's learning to go to your friends, even when it's hard  
  
It's telling the truth  
  
It's staging that you're going out with your best friend (of the opposite sex)  
  
It's thinking of the band parents as your own parents  
  
It's living with your mistakes  
  
It's forcing yourself not to like someone "that way"  
  
It's not being phased when you get hit by drumsticks and marching hats from behind  
  
It's plotting the death of the judge that gave you a low score  
  
It's know that the above said judge was just out to get your band  
  
It's ignoring the make-out sessions on the bus  
  
It's band sixth sense  
  
It's trying to forget the six cans of Mountain Dew, the three cans of Dr Pepper, and the two bottles of water you drank before you step onto the field at halftime  
  
It's inviting the entire band to your parties  
  
It's bookmarking various band sites  
  
It's getting nervous before chair auditions  
  
It's thinking that there should be a TV sitcom for band people  
  
It's wanting a sousaphone just to say, "I have a sousaphone"  
  
It's going to Bands of America  
  
It's wanting to give your friends the best  
  
It's knowing that you don't always deserve your friend's friendship  
  
It's decorating your room in green and silver  
  
It's wanting your best friend to get in the Cavaliers so you can say, "My best friend is in the Cavaliers..."  
  
It's dropping school instruments under the stands, just to see how much damage can be done  
  
It's staying up late in hotel rooms while talking on walkie talkies and reading Harry Potter  
  
It's dancing around with the maracas  
  
It's making an effort to be there for your friends  
  
It's trying to do a backflip  
  
It's watching out for one another  
  
It's lost items  
  
It's trying not to cry, but eventually giving up and letting it all out  
  
It's being different  
  
It's watching Drum and Bugle Corps on DVD  
  
It's learning something new about someone  
  
It's the feeling in your stomach when you realize something about someone you never knew  
  
It's getting a private instructor that doubles as your best friend  
  
It's being a flagette just so you can say that you're a flagette  
  
It's running after each other swinging the rifles and flags  
  
It's owning your friends  
  
It's coming to the realization that some things just won't happen  
  
It's having dreams at night about band  
  
It's having dreams during the day about band  
  
It's writing music on your math test  
  
It's playing your cadence during English with two pencils  
  
It's being excited for school to start just for band  
  
It's having your AIM or Yahoo! ID be bandgeek or band_nerd  
  
It's calling your director mom/dad  
  
It's searching on Ebay for new instruments  
  
It's an extended family  
  
It's crying when you realize that the seniors are leaving  
  
It's having a wardrobe of band shirts  
  
It's vowing to be a graduated band geek  
  
It's buying pizza and then going to a pizza party with free pizza (Barry...)  
  
It's cheering louder than the cheerleaders  
  
It's sightreading  
  
It's not caring about crying in public anymore  
  
It's an emotional attatchment to 80 other people  
  
It's going to gas stations after a show for one package of candy, but everyone has to stop  
  
It's using the Drum Major commands on your siblings  
  
It's substituting a clarinet or flute as a mace because your school doesn't supply them  
  
It's escape plans from band camp  
  
It's dismissing your band director when they say, "One more time!"  
  
It's knowing and believing that woodwinds kick brass  
  
It's knowing and believing that without the brass section, there would be no band  
  
It's periodically saying mersh mersh, rocka socka, ganja, whoa nelly, bloody hell, crickey, and blimey throughout the day  
  
It's sticking your finger in the end of a flute when the person is trying to play  
  
It's designing a clarinet or flute mute  
  
It's making your director laugh, even when they are trying not to  
  
It's trying to ignore a certain trumpet that keeps on making you laugh when you're trying to play (Chris...)  
  
It's a complete and total lack of privacy  
  
It's living to make fun of the lower bands - just not to their faces  
  
It's realizing that the members of the lower bands will someday make up the higher band  
  
It's all this and SO much more... 


	3. Part Three

Author's Note: Thank you for your reviews, guys! Well, since people have been saying to continue and have given me some more suggestions and what not for this, here's some more, lol! Thank you everyone who gave me some lines in their reviews. Please, keep on suggesting them! It's awesome that so many of you have the same feelings about band (or guard, VejitaLuver69!) that I do... So, yeah. Plus, I feel so awesome (or something, lol) by how I've touched so many of you and brought back so many memories. I love reviews like that, in case you couldn't tell... Enough of me talking, haha...  
  
~~~  
  
Band Geekism - Part Three  
  
*submitted by VejitaLuver69*  
  
It's being called "cattleguard" by all the drum line and dealing with it  
  
It's the extensive amout of brusies and broken fingers from your rifles  
  
Its a transformation from a tomboy to a girl, cuz your stuck around at least 8 other girls in the guard  
  
It's getting to be able to date the drum line section leader  
  
It's getting a chance to try for guard captain  
  
It's the tears of sadness and joy when you don't get it, but your best friend does  
  
It's having to take away your equipment for the other band people, because they think they can show you up  
  
It's the humalation of being shown up by a band member that switched to an instrument, and you having no idea that they did  
  
It's making the cheerlerders mad by "being on thier turf"  
  
It's the laughing when you "accidentally" hit one of them with your flag  
  
*submitted by Anime Queen*  
  
It's being rivals with a band student and friends outside the band room  
  
It's having all the band members give you credit  
  
It's your first parade  
  
*submitted by Keara Silmarien*  
  
It's realizing that drummers have really twisted and sick minds  
  
*submitted by BHSBandGeek2005*  
  
It's family.  
  
It's crying with your band friends  
  
It's getting hysterical when you find your band director has been fired  
  
It's plotting the death of your imbecilic principal for doing such a thing  
  
It's arranging an "illegal" tribute concert for your former band director  
  
It's learning to love & respect a new director even if he is just two months out of college  
  
It's learning that your band can survive anything  
  
It's learning that you can survive anything  
  
It's hanging out in the band office  
  
It's having chats with your director that are totally non band related  
  
It's plotting with friends to turn said office into a shrine to your former band director  
  
It's calling your band director by his first name just like everyone else in band  
  
It's slipping up and doing so in front of an administrator who is not too impressed with it  
  
It's learning true respect  
  
It's bonding with your section leader  
  
It's driving all over town just to pick up all the band people  
  
It's cramming 10 people into a car that holds 5  
  
It's learning about the highs and lows of life  
  
*submitted by Sarah aka Claire Annette (awesome!)*  
  
It's about purposely squeaking on your clarinet  
  
It's about mistakingly squeaking on your clarinet  
  
It's about 'inter-band' relationships  
  
It's about crank calling the band director  
  
It's about playing with 110% enthusiasm  
  
It's about being nervous about playing a solo  
  
It's about screwing up a solo  
  
It's about cheering when you learn you've been selected to the region band (no matter what band you make)  
  
It's about laughing when one of the people in your small ensemble screws up..badly  
  
It's about broken reeds and broken hearts  
  
It's about saluting your instrument  
  
It's about making all kinds of new friends-freshmen,sophomores,juniors,seniors,7th graders..it doesn't matter  
  
It's about sprained ankles and sore feet  
  
It's about going to contest and then having a blast at an amusement park  
  
It's about cheering after your band has won an awesome award (and/or saying 'ugh' after the other schools won the better ones)  
  
It's about stinky group photos   
  
It's about taking a 'stupid' group picture next to your best friend  
  
It's about playing "On Wisconsin" (our fight song) over and over when our team actually makes a touchdown  
  
It's about playing the Alma Mater while the drill team dances to it  
  
It's about balancing homework with band and other activities  
  
It's about trying to march right  
  
*submitted by Anakin McFly*  
  
It's having lightsabre fights with someone else's flute  
  
It's getting scolded for touching that someone else's flute  
  
It's writing stuff like this  
  
It's visiting the Marching Band section of fanfiction.net practically everyday  
  
It's spending almost all your holidays in band  
  
It's playing cards by torchlight at night during band camp  
  
It's complaining to everyone who will listen about how you spent almost all your holidays in band and therefore did not have time to do your holiday homework  
  
It's driving the poor bus driver deaf after winning a competition  
  
It's playing loud enough such that the 'soundproof' band room is no longer soundproof  
  
It's marching in the carpark and running out of formation whenever a car drives by  
  
It's trying to protect your instrument from the rain whenever you have to run across an unshaded area  
  
It's screaming when you discover that some rain did hit your instrument  
  
It's forcing your whole band to read your band fanfiction  
  
It's submitting reviews like this because you just have too many things to add  
  
*submitted by ally*  
  
It's the fact that candy is illegal on a bus before a compitition  
  
It's lifting 50 pound instruments on to a truck  
  
It's showing up for A. P. classes at 9 am after geting in at 2:30 am from champs  
  
It's about learning life isn't fair (we were Robbed!)  
  
It's about pride in who you are  
  
It's Hatter Pride  
  
It's getting pnemonia from practicing in the rain  
  
I'ts an attitude which seperates excellence from mediocrity  
  
*submitted by Lady Drummer*  
  
It's learning to tolerate body odor  
  
It's underage driving  
  
It's Homestarrunner  
  
It's naming your drumsticks... then breaking them and crying  
  
It's not understanding football  
  
It's making up names for football positions, since you don't understand football (catcher boy, runner boy, tackle boy...)  
  
It's intense hatred for American Pie jokes  
  
It's sweat stains  
  
It's running through a group with a bass drum and watching people scatter  
  
*submitted by Not a Trumpet*  
  
It's that feeling you get when you are squinting straight into the sun for the drum major, knowing that if you miss the enterance it's ruined  
  
It's free spam samples  
  
It's being able to listen to your Linkin Park CD with friends and decide how to make it into a marching band song  
  
It's being offended when the instructor calls the saxaphones brass  
  
It's telling the freshman that their plume is on backwards.  
  
It's freaking out when you forget your Jazz Band music, and not careing when you don't have your Honors Language Arts homework for the third time in a row  
  
*submitted by hi*  
  
It's being the annoying band at all the feild shows  
  
It's changing on the bus  
  
It's hearing "One more time" and knowing it is a flat out lie  
  
It's hauling pit equipment around all day  
  
It's cutting classes and hiding in the band practice rooms  
  
*submitted by Margaret*  
  
It's being a terrified freshman at boot camp   
  
It's living in Austin, Texas, and marching every day after school in weather with 100% humidity and temperatures no lower than 97 fahrenheit  
  
It's head banging with pompoms stuck in your braid  
  
It's nearly falling off the bleachers while dancing to brass jams  
  
It's knowing that the football team stinks, but being able to say MY band/section/drum major/Band Big Sibling could beat YOUR band/section/drum major/Band Big Sibling  
  
It's a cult! (well said!!!)  
  
*submitted by Miller T*  
  
It's being put in sousaphone cases  
  
It's hyperextending your knees, but marching festival anyway  
  
It's being forced to carry a sousaphone, even though you already have a flute to carry  
  
It's getting special treatment because your rank leader is dating the drum major  
  
It's being asked 'what exactly is a dreadnaught, anyway?' (my school mascot is a dreadnaught)  
  
It's having the other school's fans cheer for you at football games  
  
*mine now... :)*  
  
It's going to the TFBC website  
  
It's ignoring the shin splints from marching long parades  
  
It's wearing sandals while marching, but discovering that you march better with them  
  
It's missing the graduated Seniors much more than you ever thought you would  
  
It's going to away games to "scope out the competition"  
  
It's meeting new people  
  
It's sticking up for your friends  
  
It's getting emotionally hurt, but having your friends at your side  
  
It's dirting your white Drum Major gloves the first football game  
  
It's all about the cape :-)  
  
It's the pride you feel when you finish your first performance, even if it wasn't perfect  
  
It's running down the band hallway and purposely hitting the wall, just for a few laughs  
  
It's laughing so hard you almost pee your pants  
  
It's squashing eight people onto the band couch  
  
It's somehow fitting 57 people, 57 uniforms, and 57 instruments onto one school bus  
  
It's McDonalds and Subway  
  
It's sitting in restaurant parking lots because no one wants to leave just yet  
  
It's glass chalk all over your car  
  
It's running through sprinklers and getting yelled at later for not acting like a Drum Major  
  
It's embarassing your director by going, "This is our director and we're making a scene!" whenever you see him or her while you're at band camp  
  
It's the endless medical forms  
  
It's spandex and long underwear under your uniform  
  
It's three hour long phone calls with someone you barely knew two year prior  
  
It's "diet drinks"  
  
It's grossing out at band PDAs  
  
It's all this and SO much more... 


	4. Part Four: All About You!

Author's Note: Yay! Another one! I love it... Band is so cool. If you agree, review! Right... Anyway, thanks for reading this, you all... Makes me feel loved. :)  
  
NOTE: None of these are mine! They're all submitted by you guys since there were so many this time around! Thanks, guys!!  
  
~~~  
  
Band Geekism - Part Four: All About You!  
  
*submitted by SaxophoneForensicschic05*  
  
It's having a techincal called for marching to long and not getting blamed for it (happened friday night)  
  
It's coming up with your own society (the Spooners)  
  
It's realizing that trumpets are crazy  
  
It's missing first period to get critiqued by College Professers for marching festival  
  
It's getting rides from your section leader  
  
It's getting picked up by your section at 6:45 and getting to school at 6:51 when you live 12 minutes from school  
  
It's the 7:00 AMs  
  
It's 'Gettin Funky with James Brown'   
  
It's laughing when you are doing horn moves in parde block  
  
It's feeling sympathy for the asst. Drum Major who made fun of you your freshman year when you were in a knee imobleizer  
  
It's not telling the opposing team off when you are marching to the last set of your song, because they are on the field warming up  
  
It's running over the opposing team because they are in your way  
  
*submitted by sax's rock*  
  
It's pretending all your guy friends are your boyfriends (AN: glad to know that we're not the only band that does this!!)  
  
It's making them "jealous" of each other  
  
It's making said "boyfriends" jelous of a "boyfriend" in another band hehe  
  
It's getting mad at them for "cheating" on you with their actual girlfriend  
  
It's forgiving them when you realize your "cheating" too  
  
It's water fights at band camp  
  
It's seeing how many empty water bottles you can ballance on your friends (the record is 13)  
  
It's watching the idiot drummer try to play chicken with the guy in the wheelchair, and loose  
  
It's stripping down to boxers and undershirts in front of guys  
  
It's guys stripping down to boxers in front of you  
  
It's being able to say my boxers are better than yours  
  
It's finding out that you and your friend have matching boxers  
  
It's being embarased when your younger, non-band sibling acts like a total idiot infront of your band friends  
  
It's competing against your friend from summer camp in a marching competetion  
  
It's the bitter-sweet feeling when your band does better  
  
It's becoming best friends with a senior, and making fun of all your ex-band friends who are stuck with freshmen  
  
It's calling a fake attention in Burger King and seeing how many people actually do it  
  
It's having contest to see who con get the best farmers tan during band camp  
  
It's doing impressions of the director behind his back  
  
It's figuring out the Mexican Hat Dance, then trying to teach everyone (unsuccessfully)  
  
It's getting on caffine highs, and driving everyone else insane  
  
It's crying when you dent your horn  
  
It's denying it later  
  
It's endless push-ups  
  
It's making fun of the director wanna-be's  
  
It's comforting your siblings when your friends accidently make them cry  
  
It's comforting your friends because they feel bad about it and it really was an accident  
  
It's feeling so much better when they get over it  
  
It's moving peoples cars out of the parking lot, which happens to be the practice field  
  
It's laughing when they get out side and find their car 20 feet further away and in the grass  
  
*submitted by VejitaLuver69*  
  
It's playing "Honey if you love me" and making one of your drum majors strip down to his boxers in the back of the bus on the way home form a game  
  
It's having to deal with an annoying guard sponser that appears to be out for you the minute you meet her and doesn't want you to have fun  
  
It's getting mad when that sponser makes you cry after you told everyone that she would NOT make you cry  
  
It's relizing that the same sponser really doesn't know what she's doing and that she's trying her best to make people pay attention to the guard  
  
It's helping her relize that she really loves the guard  
  
It's denying that you could ever like a certain drum major,...and actually believing it  
  
It's having a birthday party for a girl on the guard and having everyone there except for the birthday girls' boyfriend being in band or guard  
  
It's becoming giddy over the fact that that certain drum major spent the whole night with you at your friends birthday party  
  
It's dealing with the guard people at your new school that feel threatened by you and seem to despise you  
  
It's the beauty of becoming really good friends with those people after they get to know you  
  
It's plain out PRIDE!  
  
It's having everyone freak owhen you accidally give yourself a cuncussion with your flag or rifle  
  
It's then having everyone laugh with you at how stupid you were to have done that to yourself  
  
It's the re-assurance that even if your friends aren't around, there will ALWAYS be someone there with a shoulder to cry on  
  
It's knowing that even if your life gets turned upside down and everything goes askew, there will be a constant in your life for at LEAST 4 years  
  
*submitted by Gia Black* (AN: GO NHS BAND GEEKS!!!)  
  
It's yelling "EW They're TOUCHING!" when you see "Band PDA" (AN: cough cough..lol)  
  
It's smirking when they're yelling at you  
  
It's cramming 10 people in your Cavalier, with someone's legs hanging out the window  
  
It's waving at the opposing football team when you pass them with someone's legs hanging out your window  
  
It's having the Bass Drum player in your trunk  
  
It's feeling weird because you have the same kind of car as your drum major (AN: go Cavaliers! haha)  
  
It's practicing the field show being "stuck up" by the guy who stole the guard rifle  
  
It's sitting on the bass drum having a pow wow  
  
It's doing this while waiting for the director to decide if we're practicing inside or outside  
  
*submitted by DaTuuuba04* (AN: whoa nelly, there's a lot!)  
  
It's wearing a beret like it's the coolest thing since sliced bread, but secretly envying everyone else who gets to wear the new plumes.  
  
It's being the only one in the entire band getting down with your bad self during drumline stands-tunes.  
  
It's about getting your best friend to get down with her bad self, too.  
  
It's about switching from flute to sousaphone to even out the instrumentation, then after your first day of physical therapy, not caring about the band's instrumentation and wanting your flute back.  
  
It's Mosquito Field.  
  
It's playing the school song faster than the cheerleaders and poms can dance it.  
  
It's trying not to laugh while said cheerleaders and poms kick each other in the face because they're all on different tempos.  
  
It's noticing that the drum major blinks in time while he's conducting.  
  
It's AAron Puckett.  
  
It's realizing that certain people look like bunnies when they conduct.  
  
It's the Jazz Band jokes.  
  
It's spending the first day of Jazz Band learning to kill flies with your bare hands, then sacrificing their carcasses to the middle of the room.  
  
It's all about the Abuhqwa.  
  
It's being dismissed and yelling "Ho!" while you run inside.  
  
It's making the freshman carry your sousaphone.  
  
It's getting to be a section leader just so you can step out of ranks to "check" everyone else.  
  
It's tripping the drum major as she runs by trying to straighten your lines.  
  
It's playing the national anthem in echo form with 150 middle schoolers, even though there's only one conductor.  
  
It's calling the director's newborn "Baby D"  
  
It's about failing band if you don't think said newborn is the cutest baby ever.  
  
It's about making announcements when you need to use the bathroom.  
  
It's jazz band playing too loud for the mixed choir kids next door to concentrate.  
  
It's making up dirty limericks.  
  
It's honor band auditions.  
  
It's knowing that band is /so/ much cooler than choir.  
  
It's knowing half the band kids are choir kids, too.  
  
It's being at school at 4 on a Saturday morning to drive three hours to a competition where nobody wins.  
  
It's getting 5th place out of 4.  
  
It's forming another school's letters when they win first place and your band gets 5th out of 4...  
  
It's about changing the cheerleader's cheers to something completely different, and having them think you're just cheering along.  
  
It's senior night, 2004.  
  
It's the seniors doing the Time Warp at their last performance on the field.  
  
It's getting better from year to year.  
  
It's losing 7 seniors, but gaining 25 freshmen.  
  
It's boasting that "/My/ boyfriend can improv better than /your/ boyfriend.."  
  
It's going to prom with a group of band geeks.  
  
It's the whole band wearing black polos on the day of a performance.  
  
It's garbage consequences.  
  
It's bad-mouthing the pit because they practice inside while you're marching in ungodly heat or rain.  
  
It's band camp on Mosquito Field.  
  
It's jam sessions during study hall.  
  
It's going to the rival's homecoming game with a pep band for your school, and playing in the visitor's bleachers each time your team scores.  
  
It's running from bowling practice to a basketball pep band game in the middle of winter.  
  
It's the band camp lock-in.  
  
It's school pride.  
  
It's owning the freshmen.  
  
It's funfests and town parades.  
  
It's screwing up during your first performance.  
  
It's squeezing into your best friend's size 7 shoes because you left your size 10s at home.  
  
It's loving your best friend for squeezing into size 5s so you don't have to, and giving you her size 7s.  
  
It's forgetting your white gloves.  
  
It's remembering your black socks...are still in your drawer at home.  
  
It's kick off chords.  
  
It's freezing your butt off at the Homecoming game, but loving it anyway.  
  
It's being sore at the Homecoming Dance because you worked so hard at the game last night...  
  
It's not being able to talk for the weekend after a game because you were cheering so loud.  
  
It's sore feet and hurt knees.  
  
It's the first chair clarinet dating the first chair trumpet.  
  
It's asking for favors...and not getting them.  
  
It's asking for favors...and getting them in the practice room.  
  
It's laughing so hard you cry.  
  
It's crying so hard that people laugh at you.  
  
It's unwritten rule number 6..."Don't fart in your uniform."  
  
It's the Rosses.  
  
It's the "Go to Hell" dance.  
  
It's about shouting SPAM at the end of your cadence.  
  
It's about comments from old ladies during parades. "My god, look at the sideburns on that snare drummer!"  
  
It's about not cutting your hair all season.  
  
It's about trying out for drum major, not getting it, and having people tell you at the end of the season that it should've been you.  
  
It's not having a life.  
  
It's working in the music library, but never getting anything done.  
  
It's Wednesday night practices.  
  
It's the entire band missing school the day after a parade because they've all got sun sickness.  
  
It's having a mosquito stuck inside the sleeve of your uniform and getting 6 bites before you manage to squash it.  
  
It's being stung by a bee at the position of attention and not moving at all.  
  
It's honor.  
  
It's being proud of what you do.  
  
It's lifting your toes and rolling your heels.  
  
It's marching backwards on your heels, and creating a six flute pile up when you fall.  
  
It's 22.5 inch steps /everywhere/ you go.  
  
It's transposing the school song for a pipe organ.  
  
It's playing Happy Birthday in harmony.  
  
It's knowing that even though you hate it now, band camp is the best week of your life.  
  
It's discipline and breaking the rules.  
  
It's making fun of the first chair piccolo because she's never in tune.  
  
It's crying when you can't march in the Homecoming show because you were at a funeral during school that day.  
  
It's dating a band geek, and being proud.  
  
It's Solo and Ensemble Contest.  
  
It's seeing your director cry because you won a First Place rating at a competition.  
  
It's getting goosebumps during the last note of the last concert.  
  
It's crying at graduation as the senior band kids walk by.  
  
It's vamping to fade...  
  
It's the only pit that doens't stink. Except that they do. Bad.  
  
It's The Land of 10 Dances becoming The Land of 10 Bloody, Painful Deaths.  
  
It's /all/ about Hey, Baby!  
  
It's cramming for the ACT while on the bus to a competition.  
  
It's the busride home from competitions.  
  
It's the tenor sax player mooning you from the other bus.  
  
It's seeing more of someone that you ever needed to see.  
  
It's getting /way/ too personal.  
  
It's hugs, not drugs.  
  
It's walking around saying people do things "Like a Bilbo Baggins."  
  
It's giving the finger and saying, "Hey buddy"  
  
It's dying of heat stroke and pneumonia in the same month.  
  
It's fundraising carwashes.  
  
It's sweeping the band categories in two parades in a season.  
  
It's being invited to go to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in NYC, but not going because it's Thanksgiving.  
  
It's being invited to the St. Patrick's Day parade in NYC, but not going because it's the same weekend as the spring musical.  
  
It's jumping up and down when you win, and jumping up and down when another band does better.  
  
It's /not/ getting run over by the football players as soon as you're done playing pregame.  
  
It's saying "wicky wicky wicky" as part of the cadence.  
  
It's half the band doing vocals.  
  
It's trumpet angles and flutes being parallel to the ground.  
  
It's the Halftime Horror Picture Show!  
  
It's laughing evilly, and nobody looking at you funny.  
  
It's losing your mind, then fitting in.  
  
It's being the only girl tuba player in the district.  
  
It's being the only girl tuba player in the district and getting first chair tuba in honor band.  
  
It's flirting with the hot guys in the other band, because all the guys in your band are...nerds.  
  
It's not knowing the words to the school song.  
  
It's remember music from a concert three years ago.  
  
It's roll-stepping through the cafeteria so you don't spill your soup.  
  
It's the neon green on the insides of your Drillmasters.  
  
It's taking black socks out of the lost and found box when you forgot yours.  
  
It's taking naps in the big instrument lockers.  
  
It's pizza parties before home games.  
  
It's dropping your lyre on the field and sending the drum major scurrying to find it before the football players take over the field.  
  
It's making fun of the cheerleaders because they can't keep the beat.  
  
It's too much adrenaline.  
  
It's marhcing a parade twice because you're in Marylin's, too.  
  
It's band moms squirting your mouth with water during parades when you open it for them.  
  
It's yelling "LEFT, LEFT, LEFT" so the freshman in front of you gets in step with everyone else.  
  
It's knowing that Caribou Coffee is /way/ better than Starbuck's.  
  
It's knowing you're a band nerd, and loving every second.  
  
*submitted by Severus's little girl*  
  
I'ts marching in your slippers and finding it easy until you get a rock in there  
  
It's trying to teach your friends your instrument  
  
It's playing your friends clairnet at 2 in the morning  
  
*submitted by BassClarinetSweetie*  
  
It's doing shake your booty to the drum majors and secretly enjoying watching the gorgeous soph. dm shake his *cough chad cough*  
  
It's crying as your old director and mentor retires and laughing with your new one.  
  
It's realizing that drumline and trumpets have the hottest guys  
  
It's skipping Homecoming because you'd rather be at Carrollton Band Day.  
  
It's screaming with joy when you're sure your drumline finally beat North, then screaming in agony when they beat you at Carrollton AGAIN!   
  
It's plotting the death of every member of Odessa's band for stopping you from retiring the Grand Champion trophy at Carrollton.  
  
It's not changing your mind when you stop crying.  
  
It's storming the field at Carrollton when you win said trophy the next year. (Go LSHS!)   
  
It's seeing the (built) battery leader shirtless TWICE and bragging about it to your orch. friends.  
  
It's crying when said battery leader graduates.  
  
It's cramming 175 people onto 4 busses when you're used to 6, due to "budget cuts" GR  
  
It's being stuck on the guard bus when you want to be on the drumline bus.  
  
It's getting home at 12:30 AM instead of midnight because the driver took a wrong turn...or six.  
  
It's having every day a great day to be a Tiger!  
  
It's being amazed when you see bands that are 50 or les people.   
  
It's laughing when said bands are amazed to see you (175 members strong!)  
  
It's laughing when asked "Are you the ones with the tye-dye drumline?" and answering yes. 


End file.
